Lava cactus
| Lava cactus | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Caryophyllales |
| Family: | Cactaceae |
| Subfamily: | Cactoideae |
| Genus: |
Brachycereus Britton & Rose |
| Species: | B. nesioticus |
| Binomial name | |
|
Brachycereus nesioticus (K.Schum.) Backeb. |
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| Synonyms | |
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Cereus nesioticus K.Schum. |
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Cereus nesioticus K.Schum.
The lava cactus is a species of cactus, Brachycereus nesioticus, the sole species of the genus Brachycereus. The plant is a colonizer of lava fields – hence its common name – where it forms spiny clumps up to 60 cm (24 in) tall. Its solitary white or yellowish white flowers open in the daytime. It is endemic to the Galápagos Islands.
The lava cactus is a leafless clump-forming species, with cylindrical stems typically up to 50–60 cm (20–24 in) tall in formations that can be as much as 2 m (6 ft 7 in) across. The stems have 16–22 ribs and are yellow, with green or brown tones. Each areole has up to 40 spines, up to 5 cm (2 in) long, initially yellowish, but becoming darker with age. The flowers are borne singly, and are narrowly funnel-shaped, up to 11 cm (4 3⁄8 in) long and 5.5 cm (2 1⁄8 in) across, with many spines on the lower part of the flower. They open in the daytime and are white to yellowish white inside. The remains of the flower stay attached to the fruit, which is a berry, red to brown in colour, covered with yellow spines and filled with many black seeds.
The species was first described in 1902 as Cereus nesioticus by Karl Moritz Schumann in an account of the flora of Galápagos authored by Benjamin Lincoln Robinson. In 1920, Nathaniel Lord Britton and Joseph Nelson Rose erected the genus Brachycereus, synonymizing Cereus nesioticus and another cactus from the Galápagos, Cereus thouarsii, under the name Brachycereus thouarsii. In 1935, Curt Backeberg realized that only Cereus nesioticus belonged in Brachycereus (later placing Cereus thouarsii in Jasminocereus.)
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